DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE – Review

Dragon Ball Xenoverse is the latest offspring of the famous Dragon Ball IP, a series with games that disappointed us more often than they should. After the controversial Dragon Ball: Battle of Z, Bandai Namco presents us the probably biggest game of the series, willing to satisfy the frustrated fans. Will Xenoverse prove to be a turning point of all the messed up Dragon Ball titles?

Goku who?

Although everybody loves the characters of the Dragon Ball universe, I am pretty sure I wasn’t the only one who always wanted to create his own fighter to join the ranks of Goku and Vegeta. In Dragon Ball Xenoverse, you finally have the chance to do this. If you want to play as a Saiyan, that’s fine. If you prefer the wobbly pink look of a Majin, go for it. After you’ve chosen one of the five races and customized your personal Time Patrol member, you will find yourself in Toki Toki City, the HQ of the Time Patrol, an organisation that was created to maintain the order of time. As a brand new hero, your job is to travel back in time to correct the past adventures of Goku and his friends, right after some mysterious bad guys manipulated the outcome of these.

Welcome to Toki Toki City!

The headquarters of the Time Patrol is a paradise for every young warrior and will act as the starting point for each of your missions. Next to the Time Storage Vault, where you can start your story missions, there are a bunch of shops to provide you with items, equipment, accessories and skills. The Parallel quest stations give you the chance to complete very profitable side missions. The battle station on the other hand allows you to challenge other players. Despite the city being not very big, you won’t have a chance to get bored because of the rich variety of things to do. In Toki Toki City you have also the chance to choose one of twelve different characters of the Dragon Ball universe as your master. By finishing their challenges you will be able to learn their skills and get some of their outfits.

Yes, I did throw my controller

The probably best words to describe the battles of Dragon Ball Xenoverse are demanding, frustrating and totally amusing. There were so many situations where the only thing I could do was  punch my couch because of some ruthless NPCs who destroyed my character over and over again. New features like the stamina bar, which is used to instantly disappear behind the opponents back, enhance the battle experience by far and are a great way to create much more caution in the PvP battles. Notwithstanding that the controls felt a little bit unfamiliar at the beginning, you will without a doubt feel like a Dragon Ball virtuoso after you’ve fought some time.

When Beat ’em Up meets RPG 

In contrast to other Dragon Ball games, which mainly focus on fighting, Xenoverse offers you the chance to create and level your own character. Thanks to the numerous shops in Toki Toki City you have the option to adjust your own hero the way you like. Every piece of armor will affect your stats and each level up will give you three ability points to invest. By completing the 50 side quests you will unlock new skills, items, characters and equipment. But be warned, you won’t get all the loot of one side quest after finishing it once. In each one of them are hidden challenges that, once finished, bring forth a special event or encounter. You will definitely need more tries to accomplish all these hidden challenges and even after you did so, you still have to depend on the almighty RNG god to get the skill or item you want.

Playing with your friends

Are you sick of doing side quests on your own? Do you suck at fighting against other players? In Xenoverse, you and your friends can build a team to start quests together and to make them a hell of a lot easier. Next to these missions, you are also able to challenge other players in up to 3 vs 3 battles or to trade your items by using the Timespace Delivery stations. Since you will often start the same quest over and over again to get the specific item you want, doing this with a friend is a much faster and funnier way to get your wanted loot.

The Super Saiyan of all the Dragon Ball games

If you are sick of the monotonous games of this series, but you still love the Dragon Ball universe, here is the salvation. With Dragonball Xenoverse, you are finally able to play a Dragon Ball game with actual content. The character creation is a feature that I’ve been dreaming of ever since. Thanks to the new RPG elements you will need to invest much more time to get every skill or gear you want. In the end, bashing enemies together with your friends is just a thing you won’t get sick of so easily.

What we liked:

• Creation of your own warrior
• RPG elements
• Tough story and side missions
• Much more content

What we didn’t like:

• Probably only enjoyable for fans of the series
• Still repetitive gameplay